Musicians

Anna Kate Mackle, Principal

Harp

The Dick and Helen Minck Chair

Anna Kate Mackle is the principal harpist of The Florida Orchestra, a position she has held since 1999. She also serves as principal harpist with St. Petersburg Opera and Opera Tampa and is an adjunct faculty member of St. Petersburg College. She previously served as principal harpist for the New World Symphony, Sarasota Opera, Ohio Light Opera, National Repertory Orchestra, the Colorado Music Festival, and the Spoleto Festivals (U.S.A. and Italy). She has also recently performed with the touring companies of Idina Menzel, Frank Sinatra, Jr., Andrea Bocelli and Josh Groban, among others.

Originally from New York City, Mackle attended the preparatory divisions of the Manhattan and Mannes Schools of Music in harp and piano, and played violin in the school orchestra, flute in the school band, and trumpet in marching band. She then spent her college and graduate school years in Cleveland, Ohio, where she studied with renowned harpist Alice Chalifoux, earning a bachelor’s degree in music from Baldwin-Wallace College and a master’s degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Mackle also serves as faculty member and principal harpist at Eastern Music Festival, under the direction of Gerard Schwarz. She has performed concertos with The Florida Orchestra, Eastern Festival Orchestra, New World Symphony, the Wheeling and Mansfield symphony orchestras and the New Jersey Youth Symphony. In 2007 Creative Loafing magazine named Mackle one of the top ten female musicians in Tampa Bay.

In her spare time, Mackle enjoys running marathons and vertical races to the top of skyscrapers, hot yoga and traveling. She is currently serving a two-year term as president of the PTA at her daughter’s elementary school, and she also serves on several internal committees of The Florida Orchestra. She and her husband, TFO Principal Percussionist John Shaw, and their daughter Madeline, are avid Rays, Bucs and Lightning fans.